Research

Research in the Department of Biology spans the entire breadth of biology: from ecology and evolution to molecular, cellular, and developmental biology. Our research is supported by a wide array of funding sources, including NIH, NSF and the Welch Foundation.

Many departmental faculty members actively participate in campus-wide interdisciplinary graduate research programs, including Genetics & Genomics, Neuroscience, Molecular and Environmental Plant Sciences, and Ecology & Evolutionary Biology.

Microbiology

Rodolfo Aramayo

Aramayo Profile

Meiotic silencing in Neurospora crassa

Deb Bell-Pedersen

Bell-Pedersen Profile | Bell-Pedersen Lab Website

Molecular genetics and genomics of circadian clocks and signaling pathways in fungi

Profile Photo of Mike Benedict

Michael Benedik

Benedik Profile

Molecular genetics of bacteria and microbial biotechnology

Lisa Campbell

Campbell Profile

Phytoplankton ecology; phytoplankton community structure, population dynamics, and diversity

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Matthias Koch

Koch Profile | Koch Lab Website

Mechanobiology of bacteria and advanced microscopy

Angela Mitchell

Mitchell Profile | Mitchell Lab Website

Mechanisms of interaction between stress and antibiotic resistance in gram-negative bacteria

Beiyan Nan

Nan Profile | Nan Lab Website

Bacterial physiology, super-resolution fluorescence microscopy

profile photo of ben neuman

Ben Neuman

Neuman Profile

Investigating how viruses work and where they come from to better understand diseases before they happen

Daniel Paredes-Sabja

Paredes-Sabja Profile | Paredes-Sabja Lab Website

Molecular mechanisms of C. difficile pathogenesis and exosporium-assembly of C. difficile spores

Jolene Ramsey

Ramsey Profile | Ramsey Lab Website

Bacteriophage discovery and annotation, bacterial cell lysis mechanisms, phage-host interactions, viral genomics

Kathryn Ryan

Riley Profile

Nuclear pore complex assembly and nuclear envelope dynamics using yeast as a model system

Matt Sachs

Sachs Profile

Regulation of eukaryotic gene expression focused primarily on post-transcriptional control; functional analyses of fungi at the genome level

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Lamba Omar Sangare

Sangare Profile | Sangare Lab Website

Molecular characterization of Toxoplasma gondii in vivo dissemination and its interaction with the placental barrier

Deborah Siegele

Siegele Profile

Making biological knowledge useful for people and machines using the Ontology for Microbial Phenotypes (OMP)

James Leif Smith

Smith Profile | Smith Lab Website

Structural and functional characterization of natural products from microorganisms

Joseph Sorg

Sorg Profile | Sorg Lab Website

Mechanisms of Clostridium difficilespore germination and bile acid resistance

Profile Photo of ry young
Ry Young

Young Profile

Molecular genetics; bacteriophage lysis mechanisms; bacterial toxins